Star-Ledger file photoA stack of e-mails between Summit council members about a proposed parking law contained at least one that violated the state’s Sunshine Law, the city’s solicitor says

SUMMIT — A stack of e-mails between Summit council members about a proposed parking law contained at least one that violated the state’s Sunshine Law, the city’s solicitor says.

In the e-mail — one of 440 various council members exchanged on the matter — Councilman Thomas Getzendanner writes Councilman David Bomgaars, while copying council members Rich Madden and Ellen Dickson, that he plans to change his position and vote for the ordinance. Getzendanner explains his change of heart.

The $800,000 ordinance passed 5-2 at a June meeting, but it was rejected the next month amid public opposition.

City Solicitor Barry Osmun said in a memo Wednesday that Getzendanner’s e-mail, which involved a majority of the seven-member council, violated New Jersey’s Open Public Meetings Act, also called the Sunshine Law. Osmun prepared the memo at the council’s request after a resident obtained and complained about the e-mail, which he said allowed the council to conduct public business privately.

The purpose of the Sunshine Law "is to insure that the business of government takes place at a public meeting before the eyes and ears of citizens," Osmun wrote.

Today, Getzendanner said his e-mail was not intended to subvert public scrutiny, but rather to tell other council members he had changed his mind. He noted none of those who received the e-mail replied to him.

Resident Guy Haselmann today said he left a June 21 council meeting "disturbed" by a vote on the parking ordinance.

"It was clear that five council members knew about this going in and the others did not," Haselmann said today.

Councilman Mike Vernotico said copies of the ordinance were distributed just hours before the meeting, which meeting minutes corroborated.

Haselmann then filed a request under the state’s Open Public Records Act for all e-mail correspondence relating to the ordinance, which would replace two-hour courtesy parking with a paid system. He attended the council’s Oct. 18 meeting and said council members were conducting public business privately.

The council then asked Osmun to look into the matter.

Dickson said the council needs to look at what is, and isn’t, a violation of the law.

"We’re trying to go paperless, and part of that is trying to find out how to inform one another electronically without debating," the councilwoman said today.

Mayor Jordan Glatt said the infraction is unlikely to trigger any kind of legal fallout.

"There are probably technical violations like this in every council in the state," he said. "People hit ‘reply all’ without thinking."